Top Five Football Movies of All Time

The NFL kicks off its football season this week, and we at The Movie Brothers are pumped! We’re huge football fans, and in honor all things great about football – from chili and beer, to chips and friends screaming and cheering on their favorite teams – we’ve brought you our Top Five Football Movies of All Time. And in case you were wondering what out favorite team is… LET’S GO BUFFALO BILLS!!!

5. Any Given Sunday
Oliver Stone can politicize anything, including football. But he did a very nice job with this film, shooting a fast-paced, sexy movie, combining it with a great cast headed by Al Pacino and Jamie Foxx. It looks at the money and madness that goes into football. Is it a tad overly dramatic? For sure. But it certainly is a great football movie. Oh, and Al Pacino’s awesome speech… fantastic.

4. Knute Rockne All American
This one has that iconic moment, where Ronald Regean, playing George Gipp, gives those famous words: “Win one for the Gipper.” This has classic football moments all over — Notre Dame, All-American Knute Rockne, and yes… old Ronny. And it definitely deserves a place on this list.

3. Jerry McGwire
Show me the money was a pretty awesome part of this flick, but the movie is so much more than the famous catch-phrase. It’s a movie that crossed over two genres with unbelievable success — romantic comedy and sports. But it works, big time. Even if your significant other isn’t a football lover, it’s a movie you’ll both enjoy. Great acting, humor, sharp writing and direction, and, of course, plenty of football.

2. Brian’s Song
Based on the real-life relationship between teammates Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, this is a fantastic movie that shows the bond established by two men competing for the same job. They broke boundaries as roommates, teammates, and inspired people by their strength of friendship when Piccolo discovers that he is dying. It’s a great movie, and definitely deserving to be called one of the greatest football movies every.

1. Rudy
You have to have a heart made of iron not to love this story. It’s the ultimate tale of the little guy who works harder than anyone and finally gets a shot at his dream. It’s a bitter-sweet moment when he does, but it’s a great movie, and a believable, earnest performance by Sean Astin, with strong support by Ned Beatty and Jon Favreau. This was the first movie that jumped out at us as the best football movie. If you’ve never seen, it’s definitely worth a watch.

Brian’s Review – “Videodrome”

Sleazy TV executive Max Renn (James Woods) is looking for cheap, exciting programming for his fly-by-night channel when he fortuitously stumbles across a fuzzy satellite feed showing torture, punishment … and possibly murder. A conspiracy is afoot as two competing groups fight for the 20th century’s soul, using the airwaves as their battlefield. Renn searches for the truth, all the while obsessed by an on-air chanteuse (Deborah Harry).

Brian – 5 out of 10
I love weird movies and I love David Cronenberg. You would think that this film and me would be like peanut butter and jelly.. It contains some amazing and trippy imagery that I was intrigued by. Clearly, David Cronenberg knows how to blast us with interesting camerawork. From the neck stomp in “History of Violence to the head explosion of “Scanners” to the NC-17 rated “Crash”, he has always had a track record of pushing the envelope with both sex and violence. But, at some point, the story really starts to show its weaknesses and all the great technical work in the world can’t save it.

The film’s lead is anchored by a young James Woods who is excellent, as always. However, the supporting players are weak and add little to nothing to their characters besides cookie cutter caricatures. We have Deborah Harry(Lead singer of the band Blondie) reciting her lines like she’s reading from a textbook, Sonja Smits staring blindly during scenes where she’s supposed to be frightened, and Jack Creley reciting on videotapes like he’s mailing them in from a hidden Al Qaeda base. It all adds up to a twisted ending that felt too easy a cleanup for the story’s shortcomings and messy setup. I hate to trash it because there are some really great moments. But, at the end of the day, a film should be rated on how it gels together. And, with that in mind, Videodrome falls flat and stands out as one of the weaker Cronenberg titles.